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The National Magazine Company is preparing to launch a women’s portal that will pull together content from its 12 female-oriented magazines.

The plans are being driven by Women.com, the successful US women’s portal in which NatMags’ parent company Hearst has a 48% shake. NatMags is expected to have the same size stake in the UK operation.

UK.Women.com is expected to launch in April. David Brandin, senior international vice-president at Women.com, has been in the UK for the past three weeks talking to potential e-commerce partners. Brandin said he hoped to tie up negotiations within a few weeks.

The website will be based on the flagship Women.com, which is broken down into 18 channels including news and politics, technology and internet, family, cars and careers. Other services include radio, jobs, e-cards and e-commerce.

While most of the content will be taken from NatMags’ UK titles, some content will be original. A dedicated team is being recruited for UK.Women.com.

Deputy managing director Duncan Edwards is expected to unveil NatMags’ full internet plans in the next few weeks. It is expected that the company will also develop a raft of individual brand sites for its print titles, such as Cosmopolitan, House Beautiful and Good Housekeeping, which will all link into UK.Women.com. Sales teams are currently being recruited to work on these sites.

The US version of the site claims to be the leading women’s site in the US with more than four million unique visitors per month. Last year the Women.com network, which includes the branded Hearst sites, reported revenues of $30 million (£18.7 million).